Daily Tech News 4 March 2026
—Pixy Misa
Top Story- Apple has announced its new MacBook Pro range with update M5 Pro and M5 Max CPUs and faster SSD speeds. (Tom's Hardware)
The SSD speeds are simple: They're still Apple's awkward proprietary solution, but the speed has been increased to PCIe 5.0 levels. I'm not sure how much difference that makes to a laptop, but it's not unwelcome.
The CPU story is a little more complicated. Both the M5 Pro and M5 Max feature up to 18 cores, though only 6 of those are performance cores, or what Apple has retroactively renamed "Super" cores. They are the same as the performance cores in the existing M5 chips, which we know because those cores have also been renamed.
But the other 12 cores aren't efficiency cores, they're "Performance" cores, though precisely what that means we don't know.
Also, there's no longer a 512GB option; the price has been increased by $100 but the base model now comes with 1TB of SSD.
Most importantly, the price of memory hasn't increased. It's not exactly cheap, but it's not much more than the market price for regular DDR5 modules now, and provides a lot more bandwidth.
- There's also a new MacBook Air and, expected tomorrow, the entry-level MacBook Neo. (Notebook Check)
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Tuesday Overnight Open Thread - March 3, 2026 [TRex]
—Open Blogger
Good evening Horde. The time has come for very random mid-week shenanigans of the post-cafe overnight variety. Disco is handling the Wednesday ONT this week which leaves you stuck with the Dino tonight.
Welcome to the Tuesday night ONT which means another edition of very random overnight fun and games. Pull up a chair and sit a spell. i will be disappointed if the gray boxes are not full of puns and innuendo. Pants are optional. Be nice to your fellow commenters and AoS contributors. Bonus points if you can ignore Tucker Carlson, Candice Owens, etc. in the comments.
[Top photo: Bone take-off from Nellis AFB. Photo by Camden Thrasher. He's pretty good with a camera.]
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Goodnight Cafe
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Lindisfarne Castle, under a very Northumberland sky.
by Northumberland Photography/@PaulAppleby_01
Dogs get more loyal as they age.
Little Punch stands up to a bully.
It takes a village to raise some puppies.
Cocaine's a hell of a drug, man.
River otter is up to something.
Dog won't stop breaking into the neighbor's pool.
Neglected local door asks nice couple to adopt her.
Posting again: Orphaned baby rhinos are the cutest horny puppies.
180 pound boerboel is a velcro dog.
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Quick Hits
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Looks like Tucker Carlson was half right about teams of Demolition Jews sneaking around Qatar and Dubai planting explosives.
Agents were in fact arested.
Agents of his patron Iran, that is.
Max 📟 @MaxNordau37m
BREAKING: Foreign agent Tucker Carlson lied that Qatar had arrested Mossad agents.
Turns out that Qatar had actually arrested 10 IRGC agents.
Allah has a sense of irony!
--
State of Qatar
Doha, March 3 (QNA) -- As part of ongoing efforts to protect the security and stability of the state, the competent authorities were able to arrest two cells working in favor of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in the State of Qatar.
Monitoring and follow-up operations resulted in the arrest of ten suspects: seven of them were assigned espionage tasks to gather information about vital and military facilities in the country, and three others were assigned to carry out sabotage operations and received training in the use of drones. They were also found to possess locations and coordinates of sensitive facilities, as well as communication tools and technical devices.
The suspects admitted during investigations to their connection with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and to being tasked with espionage and sabotage activities.
The State Security apparatus calls on citizens and residents to remain vigilant and cautious and to report any suspicious activities to the competent authorities.
May God protect Qatar, its Emir, and its people from all harm, and may He grant us the blessing of security and safety.
Here's video from Sky News (I think) to prove this isn't just more Zionist Lies, as Tucker would say.
Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby9m
To recap:
Yesterday, Tucker Carlson that Qatar arrested Mossad agents planting bombs.
This morning, Qatar stated that Tucker's claim was entirely false.
This evening, Qatar announced they arrested IRGC sleeper cells.
Baba Banaras @RealBababanarasBREAKING: Esmail Qaani, head of Iran's Quds Force, has survived all assassination attempts so far, and was even with Khamenei yesterday but escaped again. Now he has allegedly been taken into custody by the IRGC on suspicion of being a Mossad agent and working for Israel.
PoIiMath @politicalmath4h
You either die an Ayatollah or you live long enough for them to suspect you're Mossad
Fetterman's Lump had control of the body today, and spoke wisely.
Communist jihadist Zohran Mamdani announces free child care -- meaning, babysitters -- for illegals. I'm sure it's his idea that he'll pirate federal money to pay for this.
Regime thugs are shooting at protesters in Iran again. Send in the drones!
A very patriotic left-wing influencer says Trump should have allowed Iran to bomb US servicemen first, which would have given him a perfect justification to hit Iran and a "PR victory." He faults Trump for being so stupid as to not see the benefits of this awesome "let American soldiers die for PR points" plan.
In the previous post, Trump mentioned his anger at the UK for denying us the use of our own base at Diego Garcia.
Is this his vengeance? He wants the US government to create a corporation to insure cargoes going through the Strait of Hormuz. (Shipping companies will pay for the insurance, Trump just wants to spin up a company to provide it.)
This would have the effect of hurting the current main insurer, the UK super-insurer Lloyd's of London.
Check out Bill Kristol's opinion on Iran -- use military force to crush the regime -- from January 8, 2026, when he was attacking Trump for not attacking Iran, with his current opinion, that Trump must not be allowed a "blank check" to fight an illegal war in Iran.
Wow! What a difference fifty days makes!!!
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Trump: I Told Scott Bessent to Cut Off All Trade with Spain
—Disinformation Expert Ace
He says that Spain wouldn't let us use our bases in Spain, but then adds: "We could have used the bases, we could have just used them, no one's going to say anything about it."
In other words: Just try stopping us, Spain.
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Netflix Head Ted Sandaros Tried to Convince GOP Congressmen His Company Wasn't a Woke Groomer Propaganda Outfit.
Then Legislators Visited Netflix HQ, and Found Tampons in the Men's Bathroom.
Plus: Megyn Kelly, The Chameleon Princess of Pop Politics
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Well, maybe we're a little woke.
Netflix tried to sweet-talk Congress into letting them gain near-monopoly power in the entertainment space. GOP Congressmen feared another woke propaganda monopoly. Ted Sanadaros lied, claiming Netflix was just an entertainment company with no interest at all in grooming children.
Well, maybe a little. (Caution: Links to poster for Netflix's 11-year-old-girls sex-twerking movie "Cuties.")
There were many defining moments featured in the months-long battle for the ownership of Warner Bros. Discovery: sit-downs to woo President Trump, high-profile congressional hearings, a brutal bidding war, and a tampon.Yes, a tampon.
During the negotiations, while Netflix was telling skeptical GOP lawmakers that it wasn't a left-wing company looking to get more powerful by snapping up WBD, a delegation of legislators paid a visit to its headquarters, and one was both shocked and disturbed to find a basket containing tampons in the men's restroom.
To be clear, there are other factors involved in CEO Ted Sarandos' decision to cancel his nearly completed purchase of WBD's studio and streaming service. But the "tampon incident," as it has become known on Capitol Hill, does carry some weight in the unwavering political opposition from the GOP to Sarandos' ambitions.
"This is 2026, not 2020," said one GOP staffer with firsthand knowledge of the matter. "What were they thinking?"
...
During the six-month bidding war, many Republicans in Congress, state AG offices and of course the White House came to believe that Netflix was seeking to create a monopoly in streaming -- an increasingly important way Americans consume entertainment.
Netflix denied this, arguing it faces competition for consumers from social media and YouTube, though opposition only seemed to intensify in recent weeks. One big worry: Netflix would use the market clout that WBD would give it to further push progressivism in its programming.
Sarandos has long argued that Netflix programming appeals to all political tastes, but conservative-leaning advocacy groups have produced research that its programming and documentaries more often push themes such as transgenderism, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), and other issues near and dear to the cultural left.
Sarandos and Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings, meanwhile, are both big supporters of Democrats and progressive policies. Susan Rice, a top official in the lefty Obama administration and a staunch critic of Trump, sits on its board. It was Rice's inopportune comments on a podcast attacking companies that do business with Trump that is also said to have cost Sarandos more White House support for the WBD deal.
Now that Paramount (almost) owns WB, John Oliver will probably be the next to join Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel in the podcasting world.
"We might be getting a new business daddy!," Oliver quipped at the beginning of Sunday night's show. "Last Week Tonight" airs on HBO, which sits within Warner Bros. Discovery. Under the announced terms, Paramount plans to buy all outstanding WBD shares at $31 per share in cash, with the companies saying the deal is expected to close in Q3 2026, subject to regulatory clearances and WBD shareholder approval.
"Yeah, not great news," he went on to say. "In fact, if I may quote anyone who's ever accidentally sat on their Roku remote, I'm in Paramount now...how the f-ck do I get out of here?'"
Speaking of left-wing media that endlessly promotes the grooming of children: Highly Alleged Born-Again Catholic and #SuddenOnsetBasedWarrior Megyn Kelly, everybody, when someone else was signing her checks. Here she welcomes "transgender" children, between 11 and 13 years old, and a transgender agitator for "the Gender-Cool Project."
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Bin the Navy: Trump Announces Iran's Navy Now Sleeps With the Fishes;
US Bombs the "Assembly of Experts" As It Attempts to Choose a New Ayatollah
—Disinformation Expert Ace
I mean, come on. Even if you're a pro-Iran antisemite like Tucker Carlson or Megyn Kelly, you have to admit it's pretty funny to bomb the "Assembly of Experts" as they debate who should be the next Ayatollah to be killed within days.
As Iran's ruling clerics moved to fill the power vacuum left by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's death, Israeli warplanes struck at the heart of the regime's leadership -- targeting a gathering reportedly convened to choose his successor.Multiple outlets reported Wednesday that the Israeli Air Force hit a site in the city of Qom where members of Iran's powerful Assembly of Experts had assembled. The 88-member clerical body is constitutionally responsible for appointing the country's supreme leader, and according to Fox News, the strike came as votes were being counted to name Khamenei's replacement.
Iran's semi-official Mehr News Agency claimed the structure struck overnight was an outdated building no longer used by the assembly. Images circulating online from Qom show a heavily damaged structure reduced to rubble.
Khamenei's death Saturday triggered immediate constitutional procedures requiring the Assembly of Experts to act "in the shortest time possible" to select a new leader. Iran's ISNA news agency reported that the body had indicated the process "won't take long." Still, Reuters noted that officials may delay announcing a successor amid fears that any newly elevated figure would quickly become a target for U.S. or Israeli forces.
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Trump: Tucker and Megyn Aren't MAGA -- Trump Is MAGA. Whatever Tucker Carlson Says It Has No Effect On Me.
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Tucker is literally repeating the exact same propaganda as the pro-Ummah communist Ryan Grim. Over the past few days, Iran has shot missiles and sent its Shahid drones to attack all of the Gulf States.
In fact, Iran officially announced this was their policy: To attack all "economic zones" in the Middle East, chiefly energy production, I guess to compel the Gulf States and Saudis to rescue them from the US and Israel. Or to just punish them for supporting the war against them.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have long been not-too-secretly acting with the US and even Israel against Iran, the real country that's "at war with seven of its neighbors," as Nazi crank and fat nepo baby drunk Tucker Carlson would say.
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Supreme Court Votes 6-3 to Suspend California Law Which Permits Teachers to "Trans" Students Secretly Without Telling Their Parents
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Two liberals and one libertarian joined the two conservatives and the pudgy RINO.
This is not a final order. However, it reverses a Ninth Circus appeals court ruling that would have put this lawless "law" into effect during the litigation.
The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for California schools to tell parents if their children identify as transgender without getting the student's approval, granting an emergency appeal from a conservative legal group.The order blocks for now a state law that bans automatic parental notification requirements if students change their pronouns or gender expression at school.
The split decision comes after religious parents and educators challenged California school policies aimed at preventing schools from outing students to their families. Two sets of Catholic parents represented by the Thomas More Society say it caused schools to mislead them and secretly facilitate the children's social transition despite their objections.
California, on the other hand, argued that students have the right to privacy about their gender expression, especially if they fear rejection from their families. The state said that school policies and state law are aimed at striking a balance with parents' rights.
The high court majority, though, sided with the parents and reinstated a lower-court order blocking the law and school policies while the case continues to play out.
Supreme Court rules against private prison firm facing forced-work suit from
"The parents who assert a free exercise claim have sincere religious beliefs about sex and gender, and they feel a religious obligation to raise their children in accordance with those beliefs. California's policies violate those beliefs," and burden the free exercise of religion, the majority wrote in an unsigned order.The court's three liberal justices publicly dissented, saying the case is still working its way through lower courts and there was no need to step in now. "If nothing else, this Court owes it to a sovereign State to avoid throwing over its policies in a slapdash way, if the Court can provide normal procedures. And throwing over a State's policy is what the Court does today," Justice Elena Kagan wrote.
Groomer ghouls. They want all children to be gay or trans, and they want the state to impose this on them.
All of the communist groomer outlets claimed the Supreme Court blocked "protections" for "transgender youth" and diminished their "rights." In fact, the law was about ordering teachers to transition children against their parents' wishes and in secret.
All parents should adopt a minimum level of religiosity, even if they're nonbelievers. The Court keeps ruling that only a religious objection is valid when objecting to the state grooming your children to be trans. If you're like me and you object for non-religious reasons, they say "Fuck You, that's not a good enough reason to be a transphobe, bigot. Unless you have some kind of religious basis for your trans hate, you have to let us groom your children."
So everyone with kids should just make sure they go to church or temple once a month.
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Video of Bill and Hillary Clinton Depositions Released
—Disinformation Expert Ace
They lie and lie and lie, but the lies are not proven to be lies in the deposition videos themselves.
The deposition also included "Pizzagate." Asked whether she had ever seen Epstein-related files referencing coded language tied to the claim, Clinton dismissed it outright. "Pizzagate was totally made up," she said, noting it led to a 2016 shooting at a Washington, D.C., restaurant.
Hillary Clinton repeatedly denied ever knowing Epstein personally.
Bill Clinton, meanwhile, faced extended questioning about his interactions with Epstein, including multiple flights aboard Epstein's private jet.
Asked directly whether he had ever discussed young women or girls with Epstein, the former president responded, "No."
He told lawmakers he had no knowledge of Epstein's criminal conduct at the time and insisted nothing in his past correspondence reflected awareness of illegal behavior. Clinton acknowledged traveling with Epstein in the early 2000s in connection with foundation-related work, including trips to Africa, Asia, and Europe. He said he believed he first met Epstein in 2002.
He confirmed Epstein had visited the Clinton Foundation office in Harlem and that he had made a brief visit to Epstein's Manhattan residence.
Lawmakers also pressed him about a photograph showing him in a hot tub with an unidentified woman at a hotel in Brunei. Clinton said the stay occurred at the invitation of the sultan and that members of his team, along with Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, were present. He said he did not recognize the woman and denied any sexual relationship.
"I had forgotten that there was anybody in the hot tub," he said.
He also read aloud a note he had written for Epstein's 50th birthday, describing Epstein's "childlike curiosity" and wide circle of friends. After reading it, Clinton remarked, "Not a bad letter," while maintaining it did not reference or imply knowledge of criminal conduct. "I thought Epstein was interesting and curious," he said.
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The Morning Rant: Marco Rubio Is A Star, And He Isn't The Only One In The Cabinet!
—CBD
Our current Secretary of State may be the most consequential one in the last 50 years. Marco Rubio is teaching a master class in how to be a statesman, a diplomat, and a powerful and unapologetic defender of the president's policies.
And as JD Vance dabbles in partisan politics, and perhaps even flirts with the lunatic faux-right, Marco Rubio is cementing his position as an indispensable part of President Trump's administration, and perhaps a rising star for the 2028 Republican Presidential nomination.
Here is Marco Rubio's press conference on March 2nd, 2026, which has been butchered by the mainstream media to make the administration sound as if it is flailing. But a full listen will reveal a perfectly prepared presentation of the rationale behind our preemptive strikes against the Iranian theocratic maniacs.
Secretary Rubio has full command of the facts, and presents exactly the correct tone of deference to the President without sounding like an apparatchik. There is no parallel foreign policy being conducted on the sly...he is a proud American, a proud member of the Trump administration, and gives the impression that he is 100% on board with the President's goals.
It is a testament to President Trump's resolve to be a different president than in his first term; he has chosen a far more impressive cabinet, with a few bona fide stars. Rubio, Scott Bessent at Treasury, Doug Burgum at Interior, Pete Hegseth at War, Lee Zeldin at EPA, RFK Jr. at HHS, and several others who are comporting themselves well.
Sure, we can bitch and moan about a few others, in particular Bondi at Justice, but President Trump has constructed a superb cabinet without any of the political turmoil of his last administration and, more importantly, without the disloyalty that was rife among the GOPe-chosen officials.
I look forward to these people continuing their work for years, if not in the next Republican administration, then in Congress or their state houses or governor's mansions!
[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter]. If you folks who are on X/Twitter would follow us it would be much appreciated!
The Morning Report — 3/3/26
—J.J. Sefton
Good morning kids. And so, despite President Trump serving up heaping helpings of KABOOM to Iran's leadership . . .
President Donald Trump said Monday the initial strikes targeting Iran killed dozens of Iranian leaders during a breakfast meeting with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Trump confirmed Khamenei’s death in a post on Truth Social Saturday, hours after he announced the commencement of Operation Epic Fury early that morning. “Special Report” host Bret Baier told “America’s Newsroom” co-hosts Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino that Trump was “pleased”with the progress of Operation Epic Fury.
. . . over here it's turning into déjà vu all over again. Or is it? Has the President betrayed the MAGA movement and one of its bedrock principles of no more endless and pointless wars? Obviously the usual suspects on the Left and Right are bleating this out to sow political division for their own advantage . . .
As an aside, I have neither seen nor heard of any reaction from John Kerry. Considering he was one of the chief architects of Obama's nuclear deal that put Iran squarely on the path to getting the bomb, and was often parlaying and paling around with Javad Zarif and other big wigs of the Iranian regime, Even post his tenure at Foggy Bottom, his silence is interesting. Imagine if his rotten criminal corpse turned up in a Tehran mortuary!
The two questions, which most of us outside the government simply do not have answers to, are: First: Was the threat posed by Iran really that great? Second: Can we effectively and efficiently install a friendly regime in Iran? Those are the two questions. Everything else is noise. . .. . . This is not being pitched as Iraq 2.0. It is being pitched as a decisive, overwhelming, time-limited force. The early days have been extremely successful. Military leadership decapitated. Key targets neutralized. A regime that has openly threatened American interests for decades suddenly thrown off balance. But early success does not guarantee long-term success. A billion things could go wrong.
Indeed. And so far, so much has gone so incredibly right, the deaths of US servicemen as well as any innocent civilians notwithstanding, but such is the nature of war. As I and others have said and written here and on the podcast as well as elsewhere, The Iranian regime such as it was (and I hope and pray my use of the past tense is correct) had already spent the better part of nearly 50 years spilling rivers of blood, quite a bit of it American, all over the world as far and away the number one state sponsor of terrorism and also in that time had been hell bent for leather in building and acquiring nuclear weapons and sophisticated missile delivery systems, all of which to bring about Armageddon as the precursor to Shiite paradise on Earth and the final conquest of the world, capping off the 1,500-year crusade to make it Islamic from pole to pole and ocean to ocean.
Whether or not President Trump truly understands the existential threat that Islam poses to global peace and the advancement of civilization and human development from an historical, ideological and intellectual perspective I can't say. But that he does take that 50 year chants of "Death to America" and the regime's bloody history is self-evident insofar as where we are today.
With Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil-export terminal, in flames after Saturday’s US-led attack, China’s energy lifeline is going up in smoke.Ignoring international sanctions, oil-thirsty China had long been the Ayatollah Khamenei regime’s main buyer.
To be sure, China was a cheap customer, paying well below the going market price for Iran’s bootleg oil.
Not only that, it insisted in paying in Chinese yuan, not dollars, ensuring the money would flow back to China.
Beijing’s slick sales pitches convinced the Iranians to spend their oil billions buying China’s military and telecommunications equipment — like the “state-of-the-art” radar systems that now lie in smoldering ruins after failing to detect the incoming American air strikes.
But the decapitation of Iran’s leadership and the destruction of its Chinese-made defense arsenal aren’t the worst of Beijing’s Middle East woes.
Iran’s reckless missile barrages have united the entire region against it — causing an enormous loss of face for its chief international backer.
Two years ago, China was riding high in the Arab world.
In March 2023 it brokered a normalization agreement between Shiite Iran and its longtime Sunni adversary, Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Investment Minister Khalid Al-Falih praised the new Middle Eastern power broker.
A multipolar world had emerged, he declared — and cooperation between the Gulf states and China would be “a significant part of the new order.”
A year into President Donald Trump’s second term, China’s role in that new order seems to be shrinking by the day.
It’s not just that Iran, the anchor of China’s Middle East ambitions, is now an international pariah.
That’s only the latest in a long series of recent geopolitical setbacks for America’s chief adversary. . .
. . . From Panama to Venezuela, from Greenland to Iran, the pieces of the puzzle are falling into place.
Trump is thinking very bigly.
As US energy production ramps up, China is not only deprived of cheap oil from Venezuela and Iran, but also the ability to pay for it by printing renminbi. . .
. . .His goal is to transform the global order to America’s advantage — which necessarily means greatly reducing the malign influence of Communist China.
“Winning without fighting is the acme of warfare,” the ancient Chinese strategist Sunzi famously said.
And where China is concerned, it seems that one of Sunzi’s best students is a yangguizi — a “foreign devil” by the name of Donald J. Trump.
Have a great day!
And lastly, a quick shout-out and a huge thank you for your continued support in hitting our tip jar. It truly is appreciated more than you can know.
- ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY LINKS
- Victor Davis Hanson: Trump’s doctrine is simple: strike first at the guilty, strike hard from afar, skip the nation-building, and end wars on America’s terms.
Trump’s Way of War
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Daily Tech News 3 March 2026
—Pixy Misa
Top Story- Motorola and GrapheneOS have announced a partnership to produce Motorola phones running GrapheneOS. (Liliputing)
Though I'm not sure what else they would announce.
GrapheneOS is a version of Android without Google's proprietary software. It currently only runs on, uh, Google's proprietary hardware, which I'm not sure is entirely helpful.
Having it run on something else as well might be a useful option if you want to steer away from the Apple / Google duopoly for security and privacy reasons but aren't still looking for something officially supported.
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Monday Overnight Open Thread (3/2/26)
—Misanthropic Humanitarian
Quote I"This is about national security; this is about what's possible in the Middle East; this is about being a good partner to the Gulf States...I am a Democrat. I've been a huge Democrat, and I am incredibly disappointed with my party; I do not see myself in them in this moment,” Moj Madhara, co-founder of the Iranian Diaspora Collective and a Democrat
Quote II"When a family is boating to a restaurant or simply enjoying the waters in our area, they should not have to worry about being stopped, boarded, and delayed for no real reason beyond a random inspection," State Sen. Chris Elliott (R-Josephine, AL)
Quote III"When you tax something at a high rate, customers are less likely to purchase that product and are more likely to identify alternatives," Tiffany Ingram, the executive director of the Cannabis Business Association of Illinois
Quote IVThe party's only agenda is 'we hate Trump,' and anything he says, we're going to do the opposite of it. And it makes me very sad for the party." Robert F. Kennedy,Jr.
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Israel Tricked Me Into Posting a Cat Cafe
—Disinformation Expert Ace
The Shambles in York
by David/@disc_light
This cat is giving me feelings I shouldn't feel.
Speaking of cats and feelings: This cat is jelly.
Kitten is rescued, but is then slapped around by his mom for giving him a heart attack.
Did you ever see the dog version of Trainspotting? It's better than the human version.
Bear cubs are afraid of the water.
Dog enjoys diving for rocks.
Senior dachshund does her best on the agility track. I rate this dog 14/10.
Dog likes being told "I love you" and is teaching itself to say it back.
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Quick Hits
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Eyal Yakoby @EYakoby30m
BREAKING: It's been revealed that nearly all of the Tehran's traffic cameras had been hacked by Israel for years, with algorithms tracking senior officials -- including the supreme leader.
One Israeli official said: "We knew Tehran like we know Jerusalem."
Open Source Intel @Osint613U.S. President Donald Trump told ABC News that they identified possible candidates to take over Iran, but was killed in the initial airstrikes.
"The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates. It's not going to be anybody that we were thinking of because they are all dead. Second or third place is dead."
Robert Spencer collects some of the left's prayers for terrorist attacks against America:
Meanwhile, a Jan. 2026 hot take from far-left "journalist" Stephen Beschloss on X was getting wide circulation on Threads after the death of Khamenei: "No matter how long I live after we get through this dark chapter," Beschloss wrote sagely, "I will never get over the immorality, the amorality, the corruption, the criminality and the cruelty in service to one of the worst humans to ever walk the earth."
He didn't mean Khamenei, the mass murderer of tens of thousands of his own people. He meant Trump. Nevertheless, in the race for the most over-the-top expression of Trump-hatred, Beschloss finishes a close second to John Pavlovitz, who bills himself on Threads as an "author, pastor, activist, and storyteller," and on X, where he has nearly 392,000 followers, as "author of 'If God is Love, Don't Be a Jerk.'" Pavlovitz, who is so far to the left that he makes Chairman Mao look reactionary, had this to say after the killing of Khamenei: "Dear World, Please do whatever you need to. Sincerely, Decent Americans."
Paul Sperry @paulsperry_Funny how whenever reporting on a Muslim carrying out a terrorist attack, the MSM reflexively writes it off to "mental illness," but whenever reporting on transgender terrorism, they never mention anything about the trans shooter having mental health problems. In those cases of violence, the suspects are portrayed as relatively normal, while jihadists are clearly just plain nuts, confused individuals completely divorced from Islamic doctrine.
Gavin's gaslighting.Gov. Gavin Newsom has been put in his place by the US gas industry after he tried to "flex" on President Donald Trump over gas prices -- as he presides over the country's highest per-gallon prices.
The California governor took to social media on Saturday following the dramatic US-Israel airstrikes on Iran, which took out both Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad."Average gas prices in California have stayed below $5 for nearly two years. Trump's new war is already rattling markets. We're watching this space. Closely," Newsom's press office wrote on X, sparking derision from many.
"Time to school the Pajama Boy who runs this account for the Gov -- because this isn't the flex on Trump he thinks it is," the US Oil & Gas Association, a nonprofit trade association for the domestic oil and natural gas industry, wrote in response before taking the Democrat to task over what it branded Newsom's mismanagement of California's natural resources.
"California imports 63% of its crude from foreign countries -- despite sitting on at least 1.7 billion barrels of proven reserves," the post continued, before breaking down where the Golden State's refineries get their crude oil.
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The Media Is Exactly Who We Thought They Were
—Disinformation Expert Ace
With a few honorable exceptions.
An as-of-yet unnamed producer texted a reporter in the field to "not focus" on the Iranians celebrating the death of Khamenei. He (or, likely, she) wanted to play this as tragedy and portray the strike as a war crime.
The reporter refused and said he'd focus on the celebrations.
A CBS Austin reporter was seen on a live Facebook stream appearing to get a directive from a superior to steer away from a pro-Israel, pro-US and pro-Trump protest behind him -- and then refusing to go along with the instruction on camera.Vinny Martorano was outside the Texas Capitol on Saturday covering dueling demonstrations in the wake of US and Israeli strikes on Iran when a crew member handed him a phone with a message from an unnamed boss.
After reading the screen, the reporter asked out loud, "What does that mean?"
An off-screen staffer answered, "It means they don't want us to focus on this."
"Well, I am," Martorano shot back, continuing his coverage.
Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns CBS Austin, insisted Martorano had not been instructed to avoid certain perspectives.
"[S]tation management directed the crew to follow our standard protest and rally safety and coverage guidelines, remain on the perimeter, gather necessary content, complete the live shot, and move to a safe location," a Sinclair spokesperson told The Post in an email.
"There was no directive to avoid or de-emphasize any particular perspective," the spokersperson added. "The guidance was focused on safety, logistics, and ensuring comprehensive coverage in a rapidly evolving situation. The safety of our teams is top priority."
The moment was clipped down to roughly 35 seconds and quickly went viral as it got reshared by conservative social media accounts.
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Another Muslim Terrorist Attack, This Time in Austin
—Disinformation Expert Ace
We may never know the motive, authorities vowed.
He was, of course, an immigrant and a criminal, allowed into the country by Bill Clinton and then granted citizenship by Obama.
The fiend behind Sunday's bloodbath at a packed Austin bar was an ex-New York City resident wearing a "Property of Allah" hoodie -- and possibly out for vengeance over the US attack on Iran, law-enforcement sources told The Post.Crazed Texas shooter Ndiaga Diagne, 53, of Senegal arrived in the US on March 13, 2000 on a B-2 tourist visa during the Democratic Clinton administration and became a lawful permanent resident (IR-6) when he married a US citizen in June 2006, a source familiar with his immigration history told The Post.
He then became a naturalized US citizen on April 5, 2013 around the start of former President Barack Obama's second term -- despite his growing rap sheet spanning New York and Texas.
On Sunday, the killer had a Quran in his car and was possibly also wearing an undershirt featuring the Iranian flag or other Iranian symbols when he opened fire on Buford's Backyard Beer Garden near the University of Texas-Austin campus, according to sources familiar with the investigation.
Law enforcement knew him as an emotionally disturbed person in both New York and Texas before Sunday's bloody rampage, sources said.He also had a string of previous arrests under his belt in the Big Apple and Texas, sources said, including a 2022 arrest in the Lone Star State for collision with vehicle damage.
In New York City, he notched busts between 2001 and 2016, the year he applied for asylum under the waning Obama administration.
Diagne was arrested in 2001 for illegal vending. His other three city arrests are sealed, sources said. Details on his Texas busts were not immediately known.
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Iran Interfered in US Elections in Favor of the Democrats in 2020, 2024; Hillary Clinton's Russiagate Shyster Denies
—Disinformation Expert Ace
Jerry Dunleavy for JustTheNews.
Revolutionary Guards intelligence operatives created fake emails which purported to show Trump telling the Proud Boys to commit violent, terroristic actions.
The leftwing media of course reported these emails as real.
Iran tried to interfere in 2020, 2024 elections to stop Trump, and now faces renewed war with U.S.While Democrats and their stenographers in mainstream media screamed about a fever-dream involving collusion between Russia and Trump, the Iranian regime deployed unnoticed election influence operations aimed at stopping Trump's election in back-to-back contests in 2020 and 2024. Even worse, the IRGC even pushed assassination plots aimed at Trump.
The Iranian regime sought to undermine President Donald Trump's reelection bid in 2020, with Joe Biden emerging victorious, then doubled down in 2024 through a host of election meddling efforts and even assassination attempts in 2024.
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Trump campaigned in 2016 against the controversial Iranian nuclear deal which had been inked and agreed to by President Barack Obama in 2015.
When Trump won, his first term was marked by a "maximum pressure" campaign against the Iranian regime, with Trump exiting the Iran deal, increasing sanctions against Iran after they had been lifted by Obama, designating the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization, targeting Iran's terrorist proxies, killing IRGC leader General Qassem Soleimani, and more.
The Iranian regime responded with a sophisticated election influence effort in the 2020 campaign between Trump and President Joe Biden, with the Iranians fighting to keep Trump away from a second term and favoring the more Iran-friendly Biden.
Biden's soft pro-Iranian policies come back to haunt peace in the Middle EastThe Biden administration then spent four years loosening some of the pressure on Iran and seeking a doomed rapprochement with the regime as Biden tried and failed to secure the revival of a deal with Iran. Hamas, considered a proxy of Iran, launched its deadly cross-border terrorist attack and murdered hundreds of civilians at a music festival and elsewhere in Israel on October 7, 2023.
Israel responded with a significant military campaign in Gaza as well as the targeting of Iran's Hezbollah proxies in Lebanon. Iran fired hundreds of ballistic missiles at Israel in 2024, and Israel's aerial campaign in response resulted in the evisceration of much of Iran's air defenses.
The Biden administration, however, urged Israel not to target the Iranian regime's nuclear facilities -- something the Israelis largely acquiesced to, until last June after Trump had taken office and his 60-day negotiation deadline with the Iranians had expired.
The Iranians had redoubled their efforts during the 2024 election, trying to keep Trump out of office with IRGC-backed assassination plots and with hack-and-leak operations targeting Trump's campaign and other cyber efforts aimed at stopping him from beating Biden and, subsequently, accidental nominee Vice President Kamala Harris. It didn't work.
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Iranian intelligence sought to undermine Trump's reelection bid in 2020 through a variety of election influence efforts.
Microsoft assessed in September 2020 that a cyber actor dubbed "Phosphorus, operating from Iran, has continued to attack the personal accounts of people associated with the Donald J. Trump for President campaign."
Then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and then-FBI Director Christopher Wray held an October 2020 press conference where they warned that Iran had gained access to U.S. voter registration information, with Ratcliffe warning Iran was trying to harm Trump's candidacy.
Ratcliffe explained: "We have already seen Iran sending spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest, and damage President Trump."
A senior U.S. intelligence officer told The Washington Examiner in October 2020 that "the Iranians follow U.S. politics closely and saw the last debate where the Proud Boys were an issue and saw an opportunity here to manufacture blowback on Trump by creating a narrative that violent Trump supporters are sending out threatening emails."
A senior government official also told Reuters at the time, "Either they made a dumb mistake or wanted to get caught. We are not concerned about this activity being some kind of false flag due to other supporting evidence. This was Iran."
Iran, not Russia, the key source of disinformation, but Democrats stick to their scriptThe Miami Herald reported in October 2020 that intimidating emails claiming to be from the right-wing Proud Boys group, but actually sent by the Iranians instead, had been sent to hundreds of voters in numerous counties in Florida, seemingly targeting Democrats with a bit of reverse psychology. The emails said, in part, that "you will vote for Trump on Election Day, or we will come after you." The ODNI's office said at the time that it would brief the Republican and Democratic lawmakers representing the Florida counties most targeted.
ODNI's National Intelligence Council later assessed in 2024 that, during the 2020 election, "Iranian cyber actors used data on more than 100,000 voters for its operation impersonating the Proud Boys."
Multiple Democrats sought to falsely cast doubt on the idea that Iran was trying to undermine Trump's presidential campaign in 2020, and stuck to the baseless narrative that Russia was the true disinformation culprit.
"Russia is the villain here, from what we have seen in the public domain," then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in October 2020. "Iran is a bad actor but in no way equivalent. And they always try to find some equivalence to protect their friend, Russia."
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also sought to cast doubt on the Iranians seeking to harm Trump.
"I did receive a classified briefing this afternoon on this, and so I can't discuss the details, but I can tell you one thing: It was clear to me, that the intent of Iran in this case, and Russia in many more cases, is to [...] basically undermine confidence in our elections," Schumer said on MSNBC in October 2020. "This action I do not believe was aimed ... at discrediting President Trump [...] It was much rather to undermine confidence in elections and not aimed at any particular figure."
The real election interference, it seems, was the fake dossier Mark Elias paid for.
The Clinton campaign lawyer who helped fund British ex-spy Christopher Steele's discredited dossier pushing baseless claims of Trump-Russia collusion in 2016 joined other Democrats in denying confirmed Iranian election influence efforts in 2020 and 2024 aimed at denigrating President Donald Trump, calling it a "Big Lie."...
A cadre of Democrats -- led by former Hillary Clinton campaign general counsel Marc Elias -- and other Trump opponents soon sought to deny that Iran had meddled in the U.S. presidential elections of 2020 and 2024 in an effort to undermine Trump's candidacies, despite even the Biden Administration intelligence community and Justice Department saying that is what the Iranian regime had done.
Elias on Saturday shared a screenshot of Trump's Truth Social post about Iranian election influence efforts in 2020 and 2024 and dismissed these facts as "the next Big Lie."
"The next Big Lie is to taking [sic] shape right in front of us," Elias said. "Donald Trump will try to use this to assert illegal and unconstitutional powers over the 2026 elections."
